Saturday, June 21, 2008

Show & Tell: Hay Fever

Making Hay While the Sun Shines

It's hay cutting season around these parts, and that also means that the pollen if flying fast and furious. I've got hay fever bad, and that doesn't mean I'm bellying up to a bale right now. Inspired by Lori's view from her backyard, I thought I'd Show and Tell the view from my office window. Can you name that peak in the background?

This is my favorite part of hay. Red clover has always reminded me of the uterus. Not only do cows like it, red clover is an herb that is good for both boy and girl reproductive organs. When I make my own "fertility tea", I include red clover, usually ones I've collected myself as it's hard to buy high quality red clover flowers. In the Doctrine of Signatures, they say that the shape of the herb mimics the organ it treats. Can you see the uterus in this picture?

A farmer reminded me recently of the saying "Making hay while the sun shines". I think this is a good metaphor for life. I'd like to live by that saying and try to enjoy life while I'm still here on this planet. I've realized that the whole baby making thing has occupied so much of my thoughts, efforts, energy, and finances for the better part of the last three years that it's hard to remember that I enjoyed other things in life. One thing that I really love is my job. This is just one of the great vistas I get to see on a daily basis at work. I work up in them there hills too!

I have felt grateful that my career gave me exactly the kind of job I wanted. If you had told me twenty years ago that I'd be doing this for a living, I probably would have not believed it. I didn't expect my career to move in the direction it did, but it all ended up working out perfectly. The whole baby making thing hasn't worked out as I expected either, and I'm hoping I can roll with the same ease in this part of my life as I did with the change in my career direction.

Love the pictures of the Hay reminds me of my child hood on the farm. Sometimes my uteruscreminds me of being rounded and full of spikes much like the image of your lovely flowers. Here from Show and Tell

What a lovely view. I have fond memories of wathcing the start on top of the huge hay bale stacks in the back field. I also loved plucking the purple bits off the clover and sucking out the nectar. A special summer treat!

Gorgeous view! And love the clover pictures. I love how much you have embraced life and gratefulness as you have gone through this difficult grieving. Though I didn't go through the whole long baby-making process, I have some similar feelings about how much I lost and forgot about after having a baby and struggling through ppd--it just occupied almost all of the space in my life, which just made me all the more depressed (people just don 't talk about how much you lose in becoming a mom, and even though you gain so, so much, those losses are real and so hard). So now that things have settled down and J. is a little older I also am trying to re-enter the parts of my self and my life I lost in the last few years. Thanks for your inspiring example!